Welsh BR newbie guide

First things first, click on 'Me', 'Account', 'Store' and then scroll down and click on the green tab which says '2 weeks trial FREE'.

Premium membership gives you a few extra benefits, such as giving your players nicknames and seeing when one of their skills increases.

As its free for 2 weeks, you might aswell give it a try. The full list of benefits can be found here

Now, where are my players?...

Click on My club at the top of the screen and then click on squad. This is where in all honesty, you'll be blessed with a bunch of no-hopers.

The best player in my 'test team' was this guy

I would place his value at $1. Yes, thats one single Blackout Rugby dollar!!!

He, along with the rest of the squad will be fired during the season as I look to improve my squad.

Why is that guy valued so little? and what should I be looking for in my players?...

Put simply his stats are very low & in the wrong key areas. His CSR (Complete Skill Rating) at 11,647 will not interest other managers on the transfer market and you can buy much better players for next to nothing.

PropsYour props are vital in the scrum. Therefore they need to have good strength and technique.

Your props should weigh more than 110kg and be shorter than 195cm. Heavier = better

Taller props will help your lineout work more effectively, but shorter props are able to scrummage better. Its about finding the right balance.

HookerYour hooker is vital for winning lineout ball. His handling is a good indication on his throwing ability, so bare than in mind when selecting a hooker.Ideally he will also have good technique for hooking the ball in the scrum & good strength for defending scrums.His height is important. If he is taller than your props it creates an inbalance in the front row.

LocksYour locks will be the tallest players in your forwards. Anything above 200cm is usually a good height for a lock. They need to have good jumping and handling, for contesting and securing lineout ball, along with good strength for pushing scrums.

Flankers & Back rowFlankers and number 8's provide support in the scrum, so need to have good weight and strength. Flankers provide a good opportunity to turn over the ball at the breakdown, so technique is very important for them, along with good defence.

Scrum halfYour 9 will need to be a good all rounder. As he handles the ball more than any other player his key skills are handling, speed to keep up with play and attack for a quick pick and go.

WingersWingers will usually be your fastest players, so speed is vital here. Good attack allows them to break through tackles and agility also plays a part in this.In defence, it is your wingers who will often track back to make that all important tackle, so a high defence level is also useful.

CentresCentres are usually big, strong and powerful runners. They need good attack, speed and strength when your side are attacking, but also good defence as an opposition linebreak in the centre of the pitch will often result in a conceded try.

Full backAs the last line of defence, your full back will need high speed, defence and kicking ability. They need to be a bit of an all rounder, as they find themselves working in both attack and defence.

How do I improve my team then?...

A vital tool for improving your squad is the transfer marketAs a new team there is the temptation to go out and spend a huge amount on players, but in reality your bank balance will quickly vanish and you could find yourself in financial difficulty.

The key is to get a squad capable of winning your league, without having to spend over the odds.Note: Better players come with a higher salary, so improve your squad slowly throughout the season, do not do it all at once.

Its worth remembering that as players age, they gain experience through playing matches.A 30 year old player with Reputable experience will far outperform a 17 year old with similar skills, but with non-existent experience.

How'd you do it then?...

Within 10 minutes of looking on the transfer market I had purchased my first player

For a grand total of $2k I have managed to secure my first signing- who is also by far my best player.

By picking up similar bargains you should be able to get 15 players for less than $100k. Note that there is a higher price to pay for props and locks. Don't rush out and spend too much as these players are unlikely to be of much use to you in a season or two.

Your captain plays a very important role in your side. The key skills which determine their ability as a captain are their leadership and their experience

But I want to develop my own players?...

The ability to promote and train one of your players is one of the best aspects of the game.

To start off, you'll need to hire some staff and upgrade your facilities.

Click on 'My Club', 'Facilities', 'Youth Academy' and then click 'Construct New Level'

This will open up your level 1 youth training facility. However, it is useless without having staff to run it.

Click on 'My Club', 'Staff', 'Academy' and then hire a Level 1 Youth Coach and a Level 1 Youth Scout.

What now?...

Now you need to set your training. Click on 'My Club', 'Training', 'Youth Training' and then click on the two drop down boxes and select which skills you would like to train.

Youth Scout - Gives you 5 scouting stars per week, which you can use towards scouting a player.

Stars can be built up over a period of weeks and then used at once to promote a player. Generally, players who were scouted with between 15-30 stars will be good enough to make your first XV squad in your first 2 seasons.

Youth Manager - He reveals a small number of your youth team players skills each week. At this stage is not worthwhile having a Youth Manager as his wages will far outweigh the benefit to you while your YA is in its infancy.

Note: When you first join Blackout, your Youth Academy will be similar to your Main Squad in that there will be very few decent players in there. It will take a season or two before your Youth Squad starts to see the benefits of your scouting.

How do I spot potential?...Spotting the next big thing can be very tough! Your likely to stumble across many 'Charlie Hodgsons' before you come across a 'Jamie Roberts'.

To get an idea of who is worth promoting, Click on 'My Club', 'Junior League' and then onto your most recent fixture and click 'Reporters Summary'.

Scroll down your list of players and you'll notice that they have a star rating beneath their name. These stars indicate how well they played during that match

Anything over 2 and a 1/2 stars usually indicates a player performed to a decent standard. However, the players form needs to be taken into account.

As an example, a player with Impressive form who achieves a 3 star rating, will usually not be as good as a player with Horrible form who achieves a 2 star rating.

Its about finding a balance between the form and star ratings.

What next?...

To promote your player, click My Club, Office, Academy

On this screen you will see how many Scouting Stars you have available.

Then click the Promote a youth player option.

Click on the player you wish to promote & then select the amount of stars you wish to use to scout his replacement.

To increase your chances of scouting a decent player, use around 30 stars. This should result in a player with a CSR of anywhere between 10k csr and 25k csr.

You can also try and trick the Scout into scouting a prop or a lock as each team must have atleast 2 lock sized players and atleast 2 prop sized players.

By promoting your tallest or fattest players with high number of stars(30*) in week 2 of a season, you could strike gold and recruit a 204cm+ or 120kg+ player with an early bday the following season. Highly valuable if they have a good csr.

Training?...

In order for your players to improve, they need training.

Training initially is very cheap to do, but as your facilities and coaches get upgraded, your costs fly up.

For this reason I would suggest not upgrading beyond level one for your first season and to look to upgrade once each season so that you hit level three in your third season.Levels 4 and 5 take a major hit on your finances, so should only be bought by clubs who make around an 100k profit over every two week period.

To train a player up to U20 or NT standard, you will need to have level 4 or 5 facilities and coaches. Its expensive for a reason!!!

By spreading your upgrades out over a number of seasons, it allows you to build up a decent bank balance. With my test team I was able to build up a bank balance of over 600k in just 4 weeks, partly by not upgrading my facilities straight away and also because I bought only the very necessary players to improve my squad.

What to hire?...

Your trainers performance is dictated by the level of your facilities.

A level 2 trainer who works in a level 1 facility, will only be able to train players at level 1 standard.

For this reason you should never upgrade your trainers level above that of your facility level.

You will now have a level 1 facility with 20 training slots available to use.

Training routines can vary from training a small number of players on a high level of training- to training each member of your starting lineup on 2 sessions - Both offer their own advantages

From a quick financial gain point of view, I would suggest a training routine which will allow you to develop two prospects to a level where they will be worth a lot of money.

The next step is to hire your coaches. At this early stage of the game it is best to just hire attack and defence coaches, but if one of your trainees has a high kicking level then buy a kicking trainer too.

***Kickers are very valuable on the Transfer Market, so a well rounded player with a high kicking stat will can be very rewarding***

To do this, click 'My Club', 'Staff' and then hire both Attack and Defence trainer. How many of each trainer you sign is totally up to you, but you should base the decision upon the training needs of the two prospects you will be training.

My trainees... - I have broken down their training to show my reasons for each choice. My aim with these two will be to sell them for a huge profit, so their training has been based around that fact.

I am training this guy up to be a centre

Handling x1 session - Handling is a great stat to have for backs, but no one looks at a player and thinks 'WOW he has great handling'. By improving it with one session he will slowly get it to around the 10 level, which is when I will remove it and put it elsewhere.

Attack x2 sessions - His attack is great for his age. A high stat will gain higher CSR amounts through training than a lower stat does, so by putting 2 attack sessions on him he will gain a good amount of CSR, whilst improving his already good attack.

Defence x2 sessions - His defence is a key skill for a back. A bad tackler can lead to the opposition creating linebreaks, so prospective buyers will want to see a decent level of defence.

Speed x3 - It is never advisable to train a stat using 3 skills, as for each extra session you put on a stat the returns become slightly diminished. However, speed is a very valuable skill to have and buyers will spend a lot of money to acquire a speedster.

Agility x2 - As with speed, his agility is someway behind his other stats. The 2 sessions should help this catch up.

Because of this guys good kicking level, I will train him up as a Fly Half

Handling x1 - As above re. the handling. He is close to having a 10, which looks much better than 8. As soon as he reaches 10 the extra session will be moved elsewhere.

Defence x2 - Defence is a key skill for all positions. His low starting level should mean he pops quicker than his other skills will.

Speed x2 - A vital skill in both attack and defence and as mentioned above - HIGHLY PROFITABLE

Kicking x 3 - His kicking will be trained in the short term up to level 12. When it hits this level the trainer will be sacked. As he is the only player benefiting from the kicking trainer I want to try and maximise his skill level quickly and avoid wasting any extra expense on the trainers wages.

Attack x 1 and Agility x1 - Whilst these skills are two of his lower back skills, I want to try and get his best skills up quickly so have put minimal focus on his attack and agility. As soon as his kicking and handling reach the mentioned levels, the extra sessions will be put on attack and agility.

Tactics

Possibly the most difficult aspect of Blackout Rugby. Just how do you select your tactics???

I'll try to keep it basic...

A Drift defence works best against teams who use a high % of expansive play.The tell tale sign of a drift defence is when a team makes a lot of tackles which send a player into touch.

A Rush defence worksbest against teams who use a high % of driving plays. It is also thought to be the best defence type against teams who play a lot of pick and go, although all defence types work well against p&g.A tell tale sign that a team is using a rush defence is that they concede a large number of linebreaks, but very few are converted into tries.

A Man On Man defence works best on teams who play a high % of creative play.

Intensity

Intensity plays a big part in deciding the result of a match. LTNT takes a lot of energy from your players, whereas WNWIM takes a small amount of energy from them.This energy less results in a much improved performance from your players on LTNT than on WNWIM.

With next week in mind(WNWIM) - For games where your side are much better than the opposition and you want to conserve energy. For your first few seasons it will be a rarity for you to play wnwim, unless you want to 'throw' a match to save energy.

Normal - For games where you think you have an advantage over your opponent on 'an even playing field'. A normal will see off a BOT team as long as you pick a reasonable squad.

Like theres no tomorrow(LTNT) - For games where you need to go all out for the win. Used for when your opponent is better than you, but you fancy sneaking a win. Or you could be up against a team who fancies sneaking an upset against you.

Discipline

By the book or normal - your team will sacrifice its rucking ability at the break down area, in return for a reduced penalty count. Highly recommended for teams with rebellious forwards.

Aggressively - Your team will go hell for leather at the breakdown in search for turnovers. Should only be used by teams who have well disciplined players, in particular the back and front rows. You need to weigh up whether it is worth conceding more penalties, in return for more turnovers.

BR is a money driven game - those able to generate the most cash, are usually the ones who progress furthest....and fastest

The beauty of BR is that teams are able to find cash in a number of ways. I'll list a few of them.

Play the long game

BR can be a very frustrating game for newbies. In Wales, you are likely to yo-yo between divisions 3 and 4 for your first 4 seasons, which can be very frustrating.

Why not just stay in division 4 with the worst possible squad you can possibly find?

Sanka has been doing this for the past few seasons and has generated a bank balance over $30 million apparantly(i've not asked, just going off rumours). He has been playing the game slightly longer than me, so I am basing his savings on my own squads current outgoings.

How does this work? Its simple. He aims to have the worst possible squad that he can possibly have. This keeps his squads salary low, allowing him to save around 300k each week on salaries. Over the course of a season, that is $4,8000,000 saved, compared to my salary bill.

A newly created welsh team could realistically look to build up a bank balance of over $20,000,000 by the end of their 7th season in BR(enough to buy a div.1 standard squad).

Cons - Frustrating being a whipping boy. Need to be very focussed to see it through.

Play the TM -

I like to think of myself as a bit of a wheeler-dealer. I buy players on the cheap and sell them for a profit.Spotting a bargain is one thing, but getting them for that price is a different kettle of fish. You need to be aware of how the Transfer market works, to make the most of it.

When a player is transfer listed, they are given a set deadline for when they will sell. The only time this deadline gets extended, is when a bid is placed inside the final minute of the auction. Basically, you want to bid as late as possible, without extending the auction time....so slap your bid on 1 minute and 10 seconds before the auction ends.

This serves two purposes - Firstly, it allows you to sneak a player from other bidders, as they may not remember to refresh in the final minute. Secondly, it p*sses off the other bidders. If you do this numerous times on the same player, the other bidder may get bored of you constantly forcing him to extend the auction and just gives up.

How to spot a bargain?This is very tough to do.....and even tougher for me to explain.

My TM tactics quite often involve buying good players who are low in form. This will put some managers off buying them, as they don't want to sign someone who won't be able to play at a high standard. For me this is a perfect scenario, as I get my player for cheap....and also in 6 weeks time, the players form is likely to rise, so I'll be able to make a nice profit on the back of that.

The above player is a perfect example of someone who I have bought for profit. I paid $638k for him 5 weeks ago and since then he has only popped in technique. His form has just started improving by 3 each day, so I am hopeful that his CSR will hit 90k by the 12th of June, which is when his contract with me expires.

At 90k CSR, aged 26 and at 130kg, I would have no worries with starting this players auction at $900k. He will have cost me $66k in wages by that time, along with $45k in listing taxes, so that would give me a minimum profit of $151k. Whilst this isn't a great amount of money, it is still a profit....and I will have benefitted from a useful prop/hooker during the time that he has been at the club.

Another good way to make money is buying to train.

I paid $170k for this player and he has had no pops in the 2 weeks that I have owned him. During this time he has gone up by 1900 CSR, despite being on just 5 training sessions.This player has some major plus points in his favour: He is aged 17 and world cup eligible - He has admirable leadership, so has captain potential - His core skills(apart from defence) are all pretty high for his age - He is from a newer nation, so there is a possibility that he will get an U20 cap - He was bought in low form, so his CSR could quite easilly go as high as 36k if he was to hit impressive form. That would make him one of the higher CSR 17 year olds out there.

In this instance, I am training the player for my team, so he is only getting 5 sessions each week....but to make a massive profit, you should look to train him on 10 slots.In just 32 weeks of training(10 slots), this player would sell for a minimum of $1 million with facilities of level 3 or above. If he gets a call up to the German U20s, you could expect anywhere from $1.2 to $2.5 million for him.

Take a risk

I am pretty confident that I can work out the highest possible amount that I can expect a player to sell for. For this reason, I quite often list a player for their maximum value.

Nathan Thomas - was a massive talent, with 167k CSR aged just 21. I needed to raise funds to purchase a better prospect (Gethin Edwards-see below), so I decided to sell Thomas. As I had trained him since he was aged 17, I didn't want to risk him going on the cheap, so I listed him for $3.5 million, which is right at the top of his value. He got one single bid on him - for his asking price, so my risk paid off. Had he not sold, I would have been left with a tax bill of $175k and would not have been able to raise funds to buy the other prospect.

Play smart

This kind of follows on from a lot of the above sections, but there is massive money to be made on the TM.(At the time of buying these 2, I had no intentions of selling them....but a subsequent NT/U20 ban for me meant that I had to change my long term BR plans. I bought them just a few days apart, so in just 7 weeks, I made a profit of $1.035 million)

Gethin Edwards - I signed him for $3.3 million and then sold him for $4 million 6 weeks later. I listed him for $4 million, as I was convinced someone would pay the asking price. I risked paying an unnecessary 200k in taxes to make sure I got maximum profit on Gethin, but experience told me that this player was worth that amount. After wages and tax, I made a profit of $400k for him in just over 6 weeks.

Dean Scullion - I signed him for $2.6 million and then sold him for $3.5 million 6 weeks later. He was listed at $3.5 million, so also only received 1 bid.After wages and tax, I made a profit of $635k.

The reason I was able to make such big profits, was because I was confident that someone would pay the asking price on the them. Not everyone is able to get online to get involved in bidding wars, so some managers are willing to pay a premium to make sure they get a player.Had I started the auctions off at a lower price, I have no doubt that I would have made very little profit.

Be a night owl

Quite often, I find that I am able to pick up some good bargains very late at night. The majority of BR users are based in Europe, so players who are sold in our day time are able to fetch a premium. As the majority of people like to sleep at night I tend to look for good players who are selling at very late at night(uk time). I am less likely to get into a bidding war this way and often have the chance to snap up a player in the final minute of the auction. At 3am(uk time) there are usually around 200 managers online, so I have half as many managers to worry about.

There is nothing worse than going to sleep leading an auction, to find when you wake up that you were outbid by one manager whist you slept. For this reason, I sometimes set an alarm to wake me up minutes before an auction ends. I can slap a fresh bid on, knowing that I have got my man.

Disclaimer - If you do this, be prepared for your missus to kick you out of bed and force you to sleep on the sofa. Your marriage may suffer, leading to a costly divorce. On the plus side, your BR side will have benefitted.

Get a full crowd

In BR, a full attendance brings with it great profit. I don't have the time(or knowledge) to be able to offer stadium building advice, but teams should be looking to get as many people through the doors as possible.

To do this, make sure that you regularly monitor your stadium %s for league/cup matches and look to increase areas where you consistently sell out. I usually upgrade once a season(usually at the end of the season, as by the time the upgrade finishes, the bot matches in the cup are usually already out of the way).

DO NOT UPGRADE AREAS WHERE YOU ARE NOT CLOSE TO SELLING OUT - you will be paying gas and electricity costs for those empty seats. In some cases where teams have over-expanded, it may even be worth demolishing some seats.I believe that it is still not beneficial to ever upgrade your standing section. No one has offered any evidence to prove that the recent changes have impacted this, so its better to stay safe and never upgrade standing.

Now, a sly way to improve your attendance is to boost your contentment rating. Contentment is linked to ranking points exchanged after league and cup matches only. Monday friendlies do not impact your contentment, but they do allow ranking points to change place.For this reason, teams should look to lose all monday friendlies. This will lower your ranking points, which means that you will gain more/lose less contentment after your league and cup matches.

Contentment plays a huge part in helping to boost your attendances, so teams who actively look to win monday friendlies are doing so at a cost.

Higher contentment is also linked to increased member numbers, so having a low contentment level will be holding your team back both short and long term.

Last edited by wilf3uk on Wed May 30, 2012 5:41 pm; edited 34 times in total

About buying new players - I think that a new club may well be advised to look for some older players to buy to strengthen their club (30+ years). These players may well be declining, but so long as they have high skills they will last a couple of seasons (maybe more) and their experience will help a lot. Their wages may well be high, so a new player would have to bear that in mind, but the quaqlity of player you get for 'X' amount of BR $'s at 30+ is far superior to what you get for younger players. In addition, a new club is not going to have the training facilities or coaches to train loads of players effectively, so buying some old warhorses will help out short term a lot. I think this is what I would do, if I was starting again.

Agreed about older players. They will get a huge mention, especially after the changes to experience.

The YA will prob be the next topic after the tm. I think for newbs the best thing to do is to have a lvl 1 coach and facility, with a lvl 1 scout. The cost of advertising for lvl2 is not a good idea imo for the first few months when money is tight and the benefits of the new ya setup are yet to be proven.

I agree. While the best way of playing the academy won't really be known for a season or two, I think a new team doesn't really need to bother with the YA for at least a couple of seasons. They can buy young players if they want them pretty cheap. Their first aim has to be stregthening the main team through the TM primarily, and money spent on the YA is just money taken away from the TM and infrastructure improvements (coaches etc). A club may want to get a lvl 1 scout, so they can gather some stars and have a chance at a lucky pull.

Definately agree about searching the TM. One of my first purchases was a 123Kg prop for $10. He now has 13 for strength and 11 technique and grown the longer I have played the game. He is now pushing 30K csr from humble 6K origins. First name on the team sheet so to speak. My other prop cost me $1 and whilst not popping as much as the other guy, he has still gone to 24K CSR from 6K and has strength 11 tech 10 and stamina 10. For me at div 3 level they are doing the job required of them. Its worth remembering that these guys, will develop with the team. They have been acceptible at the levels I have been developing through. If I had to buy even 1 of them now, they would cost a damn sight more than $11 for ONE let alone both especially as they are both under 24. Another guy started out as a powerful centre for me over a year ago. Now he is my star blind side with stats that could also see him in most spots in the backs and just shy of 40K CSR ... he cost me $2100. If you are in it for the long haul these guys can become the back bone of your team as you build. A 16K YA player may be too low for someone in Div 1 but they could be a hell of a player for someone in div 5 or 4

re the YA ... they may get lucky. Advice on how to look out for decent players wouldnt go amiss. My one and only success in the YA came from a chance observation that he was getting more stars than the others in my first season. I promoted him and now he is a beast following careful training

for a laugh I just looked back at that guys first game for me. My team stats then arent as good as my YA side now I still have 5 of that starting 15 though. 4 of them are even 1st teamers now although their positions have swapped around

Just as a side note to selling players be realistic in your valuation as you still pay transfer tax if your player goes unsold. I have noticed a Welsh club "The Seagulls" trying to sell 20k csr and 22k csr 17 year olds for 1 million and 1.5 million so when they go unsold he will pay out 5% on both for nothing.

Expensive mistake to make. I'll create a sticky in the help section purely for valuations. Rather than clogging up the 'players for sale' section, it could be used for new and older managers alike to avoid overpricing a player.

If they get promoted they are likely to go from an all human div5 league(as newbies get bunched together in div5) to an all bot league in div 4, so might have to include a 'what if im in with all bots' section.

Your guide is going great guns! One thing, you talk about the fly-half being designated kicker, but actually he doesn't have to be. You can have the designated kicker playing in a position of your choice (though many do pick outside half).

Wilf, I have suggested to the newbies that I am messaging that one option is to have a kicking coach. Pick 2 players, one for the long term and one to sell. Players with good kicking sell well and in the early stages cash is a major slowing down point. In hindsight I wish I had trained someone with 10 sessions (some kicking) purely to sell after a season.

The problem for newbies I think is understanding that patience is needed. You want to do so much in the early stages and raising the cash after a mistake or two is hard.

Its only an option, and as I said, I didn't actually do it. I just think I may have done, now I know what 10 session training does to an U20 hopeful.

Have got my 2nd trainee on kicking sessions and will adjust the guide to stress how valued kicking is. Both trainees should have a few pops now so i'll take a look at them this week and add some more to the guide.

Tactics are likely to be next up, along with a list of 'do and dont's'.

Anyone got a few newbie mistakes to add to the dont list? such as increasing stadium whilst in a bot league, going ltnt against bots etc

Great guide - wish it had been available six months ago when I was a newbie

As someone who is relatively new, you can't stress the importance of looking for players with the right physical stats, 7s or 8s in the key attributes for a position and CSRs in the 15k-20k region when you start. I found that you could generally pick them up for less than £5k if you were patient and prepared to drop out of auctions when the price got too high.

One thing that I wish I had known - the importance of discipline on the penalty count; now I try to avoid forwards with reckless or rebellious discipline.

My other big mistake early on was risking playing WNWIM in an early round of the cup (because I had a vital league fixture on the Saturday) and getting hammered by a lower ranked team - the loss of contentment wasn't worth it.

more or less short = better scrummage. tall (but not over 190cm ish) = better lineout.

but how different can there heights be. i have a hooker at 172cm and two props at 179cm and 186. can i play them all in the same front row. maybe if both props were the same height but the hooker was a bit shorter?

more or less short = better scrummage. tall (but not over 190cm ish) = better lineout.

but how different can there heights be. i have a hooker at 172cm and two props at 179cm and 186. can i play them all in the same front row. maybe if both props were the same height but the hooker was a bit shorter?

From documentation:

3. Balance. The front row forms the platform for the rest of the scrum to be able to apply pressure at contact. They need to be fairly similar in height, within a reasonable range, with the hooker being shorter/equal in size to the props, as well the expectation that your locks are taller than your props. Locks also need to have similar height for a good balance in the scrum. An excessive gap in size could penalise the scrum's efficiency. One last factor when considering height and the scrum, is that a small advantage will apply for front rows that are shorter than the opposition's.

You can play them, and make sure the shorter guy is at hooker. It may be worth considering either getting another 179cm player, or another 186cm one, although shorter lumps give a slight edge